1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a device for and a method of filling boxes or containers with products especially well suited for filling at high box output.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Devices for filling containers with products of the type with which this invention are known. Although they make it possible to fill the containers safely and in an expedited way, there is still a need on the part of users to increase the box output of such a system in a simple way.
From U.S. Pat. No. 6,520,317, one such system and method are known, in which the objects to be packaged are delivered on a single product conveyor belt. The empty packaging containers are delivered on a different container conveyor belt, which is split in two, one on either side of the product conveyor belt that transports the objects to be packaged; thus three parallel-extending belts move past a robot arm, which retrieves the arriving objects to be packaged from the product conveyor belt and transfers them to the containers on the two container conveyor belts moving past. The trailing container conveyor belts are then reunited into a single trailing container conveyor belt and the containers leave the station on it.
This devices has the disadvantage that while it has a simple interface configuration of the delivery and removal devices, namely one incoming product conveyor belt each, an arrangement that furnishes a container conveyor belt with erected boxes, and a device that guides the container conveyor belt out of the station, but is intrinsically relatively complex internally, so that only a comparatively slight increase in the box output can be achieved.